


The Gloves Are Off

by Himmelreich



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 02:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2174166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himmelreich/pseuds/Himmelreich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I've wondered why you are the only one wearing gloves", she says, looking right up into his eyes now, her expression kind and soft as usual, and he wants to look away on the spot but he <i>can't</i>, "not even the Count himself is wearing them, you are the only one."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gloves Are Off

**Author's Note:**

> Slaine is one special snowflake in this regard, isn't he.

Someone was watching him, he could feel it. Not in the way someone who was paranoid would feel watched, no, he simply had developed something akin to a hypersensitivity to people paying close attention to him - probably because for the past years, that had been an absolute rarity. And in the few instances when someone did, it had almost always carried negative consequences, painful ones, sometimes. It had been best to stay out of the line of sight and remain quietly in the background, not to draw any attention to himself if anyhow possible, to avoid people taking note of his presence too much. In this moment, however, someone was watching him intently.

Slaine looked up from the manuals spread out on the table in front of him ( _"If you're going to fight alongside us, you should get familiar with our currently used signals, systems and tactics as soon as possible", the Captain had said_ ). He had retired into the at this time of the day generally empty canteen, the occasional visitor passing by without taking much notice of him, thankfully, until maybe ten minutes ago, Inaho had strolled in, apparently to get himself something to drink, and then had wordlessly sat across the table, taken out his PDA and started going through whatever data he stored on that thing. Neither of them had said something, and for another five minutes, they had worked on their respective tasks in mutual silence only disrupted occasionally by Slaine turning pages. And then, suddenly, he had realised he was being observed.

Fair enough, he was met with the sight Inaho regarding him with that calm and inscrutable expression of his, and unlike most people caught in the act of staring at someone else, he made no attempt at quickly looking away, or showing any sign of embarrassment at all. Slaine held eye contact for a few beats of awkward silence before he blinked and cleared his throat.  
"Is something the matter?"  
Another moment passed, then:  
"I just noticed, you're really wearing them constantly, aren't you?"  
"I- Pardon, what?"  
Slaine was honestly confused, and as usual, Inaho's pokerface was no help at making his remark any less cryptic and random ( _"Don't worry, once you get to know him better, you'll be able to actually read his expressions. Well, most of the time, anyways. Sometimes. Like, seven out of ten", Amifumi had said_ ).  
"The gloves", Inaho stated more precisely, with a hint of _"obviously, what else could I possibly have meant"_ trailing in his voice. Slaine was under the impression that he used that certain tone on him specifically a lot. It was mildly irritating.  
"Aah, I suppose I do, yes. Why do you ask?" By now, he had learned that Inaho was constantly very aware of his surroundings, noticing details others overlooked for being too insignificant in their eyes, and that he had an incredible and impeccable memory for such detail, too. It was the combination of these abilities that made him such a superb fighter and tactician, but Slaine was still at a loss about the question Inaho had just asked him, as he couldn't for the life of him figure out how him wearing gloves or no would in any way appear relevant to someone who seemed to regard trivial small talk as a waste of time in general.

"Isn't that impractical?"  
 _Where did this conversation even come from_ , Slaine thought, but replied with a shrug.  
"Not really." There seemed to be the faintest trace of an incredulous frown on Inaho's face at that, and Slaine remembered that he had never seen Inaho wear the fingerless gloves that were part of the standard Terran Kataphrakt pilot gear for longer than necessary, and that for someone practically living in symbiosis with a touchscreen device, traditional gloves would be completely out of the question in the first place, and he added: "You get used to it, I guess."  
"Are they mandatory elements of your uniform?" Inaho dug deeper, and Slaine wondered if the seemingly random questions were only supposed to be a lead-up to some further inquiry about the Vers military and for some reason Inaho had shifted to a more roundabout interrogation technique than usual ( _"Don't mind him, he can be pretty blunt at times", Officer Kaizuka had said_ ).  
"They... aren't", he replied somewhat lamely, feeling as if he had lost any proper hold on this conversation.  
"Then why _wear_ them?"  
This time, Slaine was positive there was an annoyed undertone to Inaho's voice, and for some stupid reason, he was suddenly all the more aware of the usually familiar material covering the skin of his hands. It wasn't the first time he had been asked about that, he remembered, and as Inaho continued to watch him patiently, he pondered which reply, which excuse or truth to give.

\-------------------------

_"Say, Slaine?"  
"Y-yes?"_

_Princess Asseylum steps closer and gently takes his hands in hers, idly running a thumb over the parallel seams on the upper side. He can hear a gasped "But Milady!" from her handmaiden and it feels as if his heart had spontaneously changed locations and decided to furthermore go on beating somewhere just below his throat at twice the usual speed, his face heating up at the sudden intimate gesture._

_"I've wondered why you are the only one wearing gloves", she says, looking right up into his eyes now, her expression kind and soft as usual, and he wants to look away on the spot but he_ can't _, "not even the Count himself is wearing them, you are the only one."_

_His brain seems to operate on less than half its capacity as he tries to find some sort of adequate reply, because there is no way he could tell her the truth, he can't make her sad on his behalf again, not over such a trivial matter, she, who is always sympathetic and nice to him._

_"They are entirely optional to wear nowadays, stemming from older prewar ceremonial uniforms", he starts, because it's not a lie, and half a truth makes a lie more believable, "I liked the thought of reincorporating them into the current military uniform."  
He can't look her in the eyes at that second part of the sentence, lowering his gaze to where she is still holding his hands, and everything in him wishes to return the gentle touch, but he knows he can't._

_"I see", he can hear from the sound of her voice that she is still smiling, but if she believes him or no, he can't tell, and he doesn't even know what he would rather have - her trusting him blindly and letting him lie to her, or her noticing the lie and playing along.  
"I like them on you. They make you look very _ noble _. It fits you."_

\-------------------------

If anything, Inaho was a patient person, Slaine thought as the silence stretched on between them, a silence in response to such a seemingly trivial and harmless question. He wasn't someone easily deceived by lies, however - and more importantly, why lie to him about this in the first place? Princess Asseylum was not with them at the moment, and it was not as if any emotional response was to be expected of the boy no matter what the answer was going to be.

"Martians-", he started, the word feeling foreign and weird on his tongue, "they do not exactly hold Terrans in high regard. I was no exception."  
Something seemed to flicker over Inaho's face in that moment, but it's gone too fast for him to catch. The other boy remained silent, still watching him closely, and Slaine wondered just what he was hoping to get out of this conversation, again.  
"The first pair was a gift of fellow cadets so that I don't soil the things I touch, them included." Interestingly, none of the instructors or higher officers had ever inquired about him suddenly wearing gloves.  
"And they forced you to keep that up until know?" There was flat disbelief in Inaho's voice, but no pity or sympathy as far as Slaine could tell. There probably was none to be expected out of someone who had seen his own fair share of tragedy in this conflict, he thought, and it wasn't as if he had hoped for Inaho to offer him a shoulder to cry on, anyway. They had agreed on being honest with each other upon him joining forces with Captain Magbaredge's crew, and he was merely keeping his end of the bargain.  
"No, I was transferred to a different castle than all of them not long after that."  
"Then, why?"  
Slaine let out a small laugh, more a huff of breath than actual laughter.  
"At first just to spite them, because I do have my pride. And then, I had just gotten used to it, as I told you." Crutheo, he remembered, had taken note of the addition to the uniform with a frown, but surprisingly never commented on it further.  
Inaho didn't reply, and they fell back into silence, observing each other as Slaine was trying to guess at whatever was going on in the other's mind and if he had gotten out of the conversation what he had hoped for, but again, the other's face gave nothing away.

Then, he picked up his PDA, got up and turned to leave. Slaine wasn't surprised.  
A few steps away from the door, he stopped again, but didn't look back.  
"You don't need to keep on wearing them around here, if you don't want to. A person's touch can't soil things, no matter which planet they are from. Don't go against your will."  
With that, he left.

( _"Inaho-san is a good person", the Princess had said._ )


End file.
